Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Typical list of snakes found on the Okeetee in late 1960s on a weekend trip with a few herper friends:

8 Eastern Diamondbacks
6 Cornsnakes
5 Eastern Kings
5 Canebrake Rattlers
4 Copperheads
3 Cottonmouths
2 Scarlet Kings
5 Ratsnakes(2 yellows, 3 black/greenish)
1 pine woods snake
1 black racer

Typical list of snakes found on the Okeetee in 2008 on a weekend trip with a few herper friends:

1 Ratsnake
1 cottonmouth
1 copperhead
674 Black racers

I might be slightly exaggerating but sadly I'm not too far off.

More comparisons:

Late 60s: Hotel=$20 or $30/night
Beer=$1.25/pitcher
Gas=.30/gallon
Total cost of trip to Okeetee=Cheap

2008: Hotel=$70-$100
Beer=$2.00 per beer
Gas=$3.25/gallon
Total cost of trip to Okeetee=Not cheap

you should be happy gas is still only 3.25 were you're at... it hit 3.35 here in redneck central last week
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~Maggie~

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
1.0 Brooksi
0.1 Red Belly Piranha
1.0 Australian Shepherd

$3.42 on PCB... Oh suuuuuure they're not price-gouging just because of spring breakers. Whatever. *rolls eyes*
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Holly

0.1 Lavender California Kingsnake (Lizzie Borden) (missing )
1.0 Florida Kingsnake possible mix (Eddie Gein)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Charley Manson)
1.0 Orange Marmalade Cat (Oliver)
1.0 Egyptian Arabian (Bagan)

2.0 Toddlers (Justice & Trevor)

yeah, it'll hit $4 here by the end of May... That's why I'm buyin a brand new Yamaha XT250 dual purpose bike... can't beat the gas mileage and I can take it off road, which will probly kill my gas money budget...
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~Maggie~

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
1.0 Brooksi
0.1 Red Belly Piranha
1.0 Australian Shepherd

Diesel's already well over $4. I'll be glad to see the hybrid GMC Sierras they're releasing for 2009. ^_^ 6000lb towing capacity, wewt! Great gas mileage AND it can pull a horse trailer! ^_^
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Holly

0.1 Lavender California Kingsnake (Lizzie Borden) (missing )
1.0 Florida Kingsnake possible mix (Eddie Gein)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Charley Manson)
1.0 Orange Marmalade Cat (Oliver)
1.0 Egyptian Arabian (Bagan)

2.0 Toddlers (Justice & Trevor)

yeah, a hybrid that can pull the horses around would be good... I just sold my Quarter Horse b/c of issues w/ my aunt... I was keeping him there till she went nuts, so I had to sell him to get her off my back... Hopefully in a couple years I'll be able to buy an Arabian... I found a breeder who's got some amazing bloodlines I'd love to get my hands on...
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~Maggie~

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
1.0 Brooksi
0.1 Red Belly Piranha
1.0 Australian Shepherd

We had a guy near here who was breeding Arabs with Warmbloods, mostly trying to produce a beautiful, yet big, Arab. Their bloodlines were incredible. My beautiful Bagan was able to be registered at birth, but the first owners never did and he was already a gelding when I got him so we couldn't see the reason for spending a lot of money to register him. Aside from getting his family tree, of course.
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Holly

0.1 Lavender California Kingsnake (Lizzie Borden) (missing )
1.0 Florida Kingsnake (Eddie Gein)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Charley Manson)
1.0 Orange Marmalade Cat (Oliver)
1.0 Black Cat (Shadowfax)
1.0 Egyptian Arabian (Bagan)
1.0 Tennessee Walking Horse (Durango)

2.0 Toddlers (Justice & Trevor)

I love the looks of the Arabians... I can't wait till I can et a place of my own and can get a pair...
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~Maggie~

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
1.0 Brooksi
0.1 Red Belly Piranha
1.0 Australian Shepherd

When I first started driving, gas was only $.79 per gallon... in 1996! Sure, there were places that hit $1.10, but *I* didn't fill up there. ^_^
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Holly

0.1 Lavender California Kingsnake (Lizzie Borden) (missing )
1.0 Florida Kingsnake possible mix (Eddie Gein)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Charley Manson)
1.0 Orange Marmalade Cat (Oliver)
1.0 Egyptian Arabian (Bagan)

2.0 Toddlers (Justice & Trevor)

that is the exact statistic I seem to get here on the east coast of central Florida!,...It seems almost everytime I go outside, I always see Black Racers,.......they are truly as common as ROCKS here. Here's my neighborhood stats.

* 1 cornsnake(several DOR)
* 1 yellow Ratsnake(several DOR)
* 1 Pine Woods Snake
* 1 Coachwhip
* 1 Eastern Coralsnake(DOR)
* 674 Black Racers..LOL!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Maybe we should start finding morphs of black racers to breed/sell, start a black racer forum,have a black racer expo,etc as if you can't lick em join em.

yeah.

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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

Yeah, if you can't join 'em lick 'em, so I did!
Man she was pissed too! LOL!!!!!
-Phil
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Work is the curse
of the drinking class!

Then you did it all wrong..
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

Now on a serious note,....Mark, is that amel a priapus?, and did you capture it?,....VERY cool in ANY case!, out of all the "zillions" I've seen in my life, I can't remember ever seeing an albino Southern before.

This is truly a "first" for me, in saying AWESOME BLACK RACER!.........I would own THAT one!..LOL!

~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Found here in Tampa. I never actually "owned" it and could not talk the guy out of it. The keeper wasn't experienced w/racers and it has since died....
Wish I would have had a decent camera at the time or knew how to use the one I had.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

Boy, Mark!, too bad you didn't get some more really good poised shots of that little dude, as with some of your other great photos!, What an exceptional find.

Also too bad the other guy couldn't keep it alive. Thanks for the rare photo treat!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I was just in the area last weekend..
Found:
4 b.racers
3 canebrakes
1 corn
2 ratsnakes
1 glass lizard
1 6-lined racerunner
2 broad headed skinks
tmtc yellow bellied turtles
1 s. toad
dor e. hognose
1 rough earth snake
4 SC slimy sals
1 marbled sal
tmtc gators
tmtc green anoles
tmtc ground skinks
bullfrogs
various frogs calling
and
probably others I may have forgotten
Give it about 2-3 weeks I bet.

2 big Hampton county canebrakes

pretty little Jasper county canebrake

:Mark

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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

Mark. You're killing my whole theory. Glad you had such a productive time. The jasper Canebrake was gorgeous!!!

those are some fine brakes! did you find them out in the open like that?

daveb

Dave, they were all under tin or boards.
I'll send you a link to another post.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

Geeesh!,....that Jasper County Canebrake is stunning!

I like that one!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

maybe you should herp where the northern and southern racer boundaries cross. then you could list:

674 n black racers
674 intergrades
674 s black racers

speaking of expensive, I used to be able to drive to Daytona for $60. now I can't get out of pennsylvania for $60, lol.

good to see you on the forum. you get those red throats yet?

daveb

The way gas prices are going, I am thinking of going road collecting this summer on a pogo stick. Still awaiting permit, as they lost it, then finally found it. perhaps I will get those red thoats when they are of breeding size. How are your little beauties doing? send me pics

You are getting more "Red Tape" than you are "Red Throats", Gee, I can't imagine anything pertaining to state, or government doing this!..LOL!

No doubt, you get the ironic sarcasm in that!.....maybe you should have given Porter Ricks a call, he would have put some fire under their asses!

~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

.......WD95-98..come in Bud,Sandy ....Flippers in trouble!!!
>>>Hey Dad Flippers with us..i think he wants us to follow him

I mourn your natural losses with you.

Hopefully enough people like you will become vocal and ACTIVE to preserve habitat and quality of life in that region. If so, the wildlife will come back.

Ameron in Portland, OR

Baja King 1.0
Desert King 1.0
(splendida)

Not really funny though, is it…
Why is the term “tree hugger” derogatory? I guess some of the people ARE fooled all of the time! Great post.

1000 beer cans
200 shotgun shells
14 tires
1 mattress
4 bicycle frames
1 stroller
3 shopping carts
1 hood
1,000,000 fire ants

Sadly, your descriptive of what you find on a 2008 trip to Okeetee, or any, once pristine habitat, is far more accurate than mine. True there are still area like that to be found but they are now the exception to , and not the rule as they were 40 years ago. I shudder to think what conditions in the field will be like for the next generation of naturalists-probably go herping in a hazmat suit.

I was over there visiting a girlfriend a couple years ago and wanted to go out and find some pretty Leopard Rats....bought a field guide,etc....I got there and the country looked great, the weather was perfect...but I walked around town and saw all the people missing limbs from the land mines, kind of makes you forget about herping in a hurry. I did find some cool water snakes in the river though.

Hey Charlie!,.....come over here and check out this bucket of snakes I caught at the Okeetee gun Club property today,.......haha!, look, a couple of 'em have three eyes, and that one's spine there is twisted like a friggin' pretzel!

Okay Joe, let me go get the caustic chemical bath, so I can rinse them off first!, the last cornsnake Ken handled from the same area without a chemical rinse, his friggin' hair started falling out!!!!

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

What is that a picture of, Doug?
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Diego

Diego,.....

It's just some hazardous clean-up from who knows where, that I thought would make an appropriate funny post to the other above posts regarding all the garbage, and pollution we all see nowadays when out herping today.

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Oh, it was definitely appropriate. It's just that I can't figure out what the hell that is smashed on the concrete and it was bugging me!

Thanks!
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Diego

Yeah, yer right.

It looks disturbingly...Biological...like something or (shudder) somebody went **SPLAT**.

They say its not the fall that kills ya...

John D
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I am so not lesdysxic!

0.1 Creamsicle Cornsake
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake
0.1 Desert Kingsnake
1.1 Eastern Kingsnakes

Very productive finds!,.....................................If you happen to be Fred and Lamont of "Sanford & Son" Salvage Co. ..LOL!

Sadly, that does sound like a typical day of herping, ..or doing anything outside for that matter!

~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

After a long day of ripped up hands and legs from thorny vines and bushes, aggravation from incessant insect bites and buzzing, and a day of flipping tins and boards in a continuing effort to fuse my vertebrae into a permanent "u" shape, and finding racer after racer after racer,this all after a long drive on boring roads that give me a stiff neck, I thank my lucky stars that alcohol is still legal in the United States. An enterprising herper one day will open up a bar/strip joint in the middle of Okeetee, the Davis Mtns, Carr Canyon,etc. Of course if that was done, who the heck would be out in the field?

Again Howie,...that makes too much good sense!.....funny as all heck too!...LOL!

I can picture the billboards along the highway going to those revered hot spots, for example going towards Jasper County............"You'll Flip, at the Crazy Corn Lounge"

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Woulkd that make you a flippin tin horn-ey

n/p
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"